KoreanClass101.com Blog

We recently had a discussion about house size with our homestay guest. He indicated that he lives in a 32 평 apartment but his best friend lives in a 100 평 주택 (house). One 평 equals about 3.3 square meters or 35.5 square feet. Therefore, his apartment is about 1,100 square feet and his friends house is 3,550 square feet! He says his friend's house is three stories and that his friends family is rich. I would think that having a house of that size in Korea would qualify as being rich. A 32 평 apartment in Korea is above average in size, even though by American standards it is small. We just moved out of a 1400 sq. ft.  house and it felt very small. Perhaps that is because there were six of us living there (we have four children). While... Show more

Just a little while ago, I wrote about two pre-school boys who were going to graduate to the elementary house. I said that these kids were pretty tough. What became clear last night was that they are absolutely on the bottom rung. Now, they might not take it from the 2nd graders, everyone else will be dishing it out in a big way. This is 한규 who cries pretty easily. He usually cries for an extended period of time in order to get what he wants. His little brother pulls this trick ALL time and it works for him. That kid is spoiled beyond belief..but that's a different story! 한규 just cries and cries.. you know what I mean, when the crying is just for effect, and not because he is still hurt. Anyway, last night just about... Show more

March seems very long compared to the short month of February right before it but a lot of things happen in this month of the year to make it a very short one actually. Schools start again in March in Korea, and the weather gets much warmer in March, it almost stops snowing, the flowers start blooming, and so on. But, somehow, when I think of the word "March", there isn't as much that comes to my mind as when I think of the other months. I am not sure, but I guess it might have something to do with all the celebrations of the new year that go on before March... What do you think of when you think about the month of March?

Winters in Korea are cold. When I lived in Korea the one thing that kept the winters bearable was the warm floors. Korea uses, I think universally, radiant heat as its primary heat source. The comfort of having warmfloors heating the house without the noise and discomfort of having forced air is really nice. The one thing that I did not like about radiant heat in Korea was having to rotate the 연탄 (coal briquettes). I don't think 얀탄 are very popular in Korea right now though. I think it used to be that every year there were news reports of people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning from 얀탄. Nowadays the floors are heated primarily from a gas boiler. We finished building our house last year and we decided that our primary source of heat... Show more

I usually write about my experiences with Korean orphans, but I've just spent a week in Taipei, so I decided to switch things up a little bit... Of course, the language of Taiwan in Chinese, but a lot of Koreans travel there, and my Korean came in handy at least once. I was entirely unprepared for the Chinese... I should have spent some time with SurvivalPhrases.com before the trip. Alas, I was hopelessly lost, except for the precious few Hanja I understand and recognize. In Taipei, there is a section of town called Snake Alley. It must have been much more exciting in it's hey day, but now is just another street market. The name comes from store fronts where the guy will pull out a large (2m) long snake and bash it's head to stun... Show more